PVG for employers

Organisations and personal employers

The law for the PVG scheme is different depending on whether the person involved is:

an employee of an organisation

a person hired by a 'personal employer' (for example, someone who gets direct payments and uses them to employ a personal assistant).

Organisations

It's against the law for an organisation to employ someone to work with children or protected adults if they're barred from doing it.

It's also illegal for the barred person to do or seek to do this work.

Because of this, organisations should only employ people who are members of the PVG scheme. If they aren't, you should ask them to join the scheme so you can make sure they're allowed to do this type of work before you employ them.

Personal employers

It's not against the law for a personal employer to hire someone to work with children or protected adults if they're barred from doing it.

It's still illegal for the barred person to do this work though, and if they're found to be doing it they can be prosecuted.

If you're a personal employer, you don't have to tell the person you want to employ to join the PVG scheme or give proof that they're already a member, but it's strongly recommended.